“The gameplan is to establish our identity as a relentless football team…” ~ Jesuit OT/DE Trevor Mayberry
Tampa, August 22, 2019- The Tigers were true predators in the 2018 playoffs, climbing up the Class 5A bracket with ease. The boys in the royal blue and white outscored contenders by twenty or more points, reaching the State Semi-Final as a final-four team and finishing at 12-2 as regional champs. Fast-forward to the present, and Jesuit is set to knock the “rust” off at home THIS coming Friday, against the Plant City Raiders; popcorn on stand-by for this week one showdown. Here’s a little insight on what to expect in t-minus 48 hours from their star-studded, double-sided lineman’s POV.
“I expect to bring leadership, high energy, and nastiness to the O-line. The team’s expectations are set one week at a time; we are a fourth-quarter team. We play from the first snap to the last whistle.” states offensive tackle and defensive end, Trevor Mayberry firmly.
One blatant and admirable quality about Mayberry’s tactical play-style is his lightning-fast hand-eye coordination. His footwork for leverage as an exterior lineman is second-nature every snap, repeatedly keeping his opponent in direct line of sight. Once he ‘unholsters’ his hands and digs them under your chest pads, it’s over- hope you have a good back-pedal or that whistle blows, otherwise it’s six-feet under for you. Trevor has a great range of motion standing at 6’3″ 261 pounds and an eye-opening 4.8 40-yard dash for those down-field block assignments to make headway for his fellow ball carrier.
Landing the 38th spot among Florida football teams and ranked 320th nationally based on last year’s efforts, it’s pretty apparent Jesuit was BUSY putting up above-average numbers to say the least. The Tigers come in at 6th in their Class 5A District 10 standings and earned the fifth spot of 81 teams in Points For, with 462 total. Trevor and his neighboring company held down Jesuit’s offensive efforts without question, allowing the team to topple national averages in the rushing category with 202.9 YPG, 98.4 receiving yards per game (tied with national averages), and 53 total TDs (17 passing, 32 rushing). Expect to see those chains move from their ground game out the gate, and some creativity through the air strategically mixed in (who knows what they have in store, suspense makes it that much more exciting to witness what’s put together).
The All-Regional Third-Team student-athlete on the frontline concludes, “Of course, film study is important, but my goal is to be completely prepared for anything on Friday and be Plant City’s biggest problem by dominating the line.”
Jesuit’s face-off with Plant City opens up their regular season with a very prevalent and eager home crowd. The game-clock is scheduled to start rolling at 7:30 p.m., get those tickets!
Vaughan Sixbury, BCP Contributor